Photo Contest Ends Midnight Sunday 15th March - Reading Rocks!

easyfundraising want you to share a picture or video with them showing why 

Reading Rocks!

Deadline is Sunday 15th March midnight.

UK residents aged 18 or over.

You don't have to be an easyfundraising member to take part.

One entry per person.

There are two ways to enter :

Facebook

Share your picture or video on easyfundraising's Facebook page, either in the comments under a post about the competition or on their wall.

Twitter

Tweet your picture or video using the hashtag #ReadingRocks and remember to mention @easyuk.

They suggest lots of ways you can show how much you think Reading Rocks; a selfie of you with your favourite book, a picture of your book club, your children enjoying reading their favourite book, the kids dressed as characters from literature or even your pet with their purrfect book!

Win a £100 donation!

What’s more, once you’ve shared your photo or video, you’ll be in with a chance to WIN £100 to donate to the charity that’s close to our heart - Invest in ME!

PLUS The Book People have given easyfundraising a children’s book bundle to giveaway with an RRP of over £240! And they’ve increased donations to 3% so you raise even more.

We only have until Sunday 15th March to enter, so grab your camera and let's get snapping!

Terms and Conditions in full

GOOD LUCK & THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

*****

Let's Do It For ME is an awareness and fundraising campaign in support of Invest in ME Charity.  We are aiming to reach a million pounds for Invest in ME Research Funds in 2015 - please click here for March 2015 press release and details - http://bitly.com/1zZWp4l

Let's Scare to Care at Halloween! Photo Competition, Scary Bear Party and more ..

Let's be devils and help Invest in ME reach their fundraising ghouls this Halloween!

Enter Giveacar's Halloween Photo Competition and win some fantastic prizes 

as well as great donations for our favourite charity - Invest in ME!

Giveacar are looking for creative, imaginative photographs of your Halloween festivities - pumpkin carvings, spooky costumes, terrifying decorations or maybe something even more unique!

Prizes

1st Prize: An Amazon Kindle and £200 donation to charity

2nd Prize: A 6 month Netflix subscription and £100 donation to charity

3rd Prize: A £20 Amazon voucher and £50 donation to charity

The competition will run from Friday 24th October to Tuesday 4th November at midnight.

To enter: You can enter the competition in a number of ways:

Facebook: Go to the Giveacar Facebook page, like the page and upload your photograph to the timeline. Make sure you mention Invest in ME charity in the text! (your picture won't appear on the timeline straight away but Giveacar will have received it).

Twitter: Tweet your photograph, making sure that you include @Giveacar so that they can see it and mention the name of Invest in ME charity (@Invest_in_ME) Follow @Giveacar to be notified of the results.

Email: You can also email your entries to charity@giveacar.co.uk making sure that you attach the photograph and mention Invest in ME charity.

For more information visit www.giveacar.co.uk/halloween-competition

Giveacar will release the results on Friday 7th November - GOOD LUCK!

More fiendish ways to raise funds or have just have fun and lift some spirits .. 

Well enough for a Halloween party, or know someone who is? 

Why not ask them to scare to care and donate £5 to Invest in ME?  

Not well enough to party, but want to raise some spirits? 

You are warmly invited to join Scary Bear for M.E. Halloween online on Facebook!  

See you there, if you dare .... mwahahah! 

Need some fiendishly fine jewellery to adorn your party scary wear?

Fly on over to Jenny's Treasures Halloween 2014 Album!

Want to shed a little light on the night?

Alison Orr's gorgeous candles - organic unscented option available!

Roger's Fright Hike for Invest In ME!
Batastic! Roger Ogborne's story: "On 31st October I will be taking part in the Fright Hike; A 20 mile hike through Epping Forest in Essex in the dark! I will be starting at Midnight on Halloween and I am doing it to raise money for Invest in ME as my daughter was diagnosed at 15 with this illness. Invest in ME is a charity that seeks to raise money to fund biomedical research in regards to ME." 
See Roger's Everyclick fundraising page.

THANKS to all joining in with the spirit of our campaign to raise awareness 

and lots of funds for Invest in ME - Happy Halloween everyone!

Thank you for your support! 

*Let's do it for ME! is a campaign to help raise awareness of the work of independent 

UK charity Invest in ME (Research) and funds for the biomedical research into myalgic encephalomyelitis that the charity is organising and/or funding. Invest in ME is run entirely by unpaid volunteers who either have ME or are parents and carers of ME patients. They are driving the agenda of scientific biomedical research into diagnostic tests and treatments for myalgic encephomyelitis in UK in collaboration with international researchers of world renown - 2014 is an exciting year for progress in M.E. research - you can help*

Let's do it for ME!

in support of

Invest in ME

Let’s Get Snapping for ME 2014 Competition Online Vote

There’s always a great sense of excitement in the air when our Online Vote goes live
because everyone is eager to see the entries. However, this year it’s even more so since not
only are everyone’s images going in for the first time but most of the Let’s do it for ME Team
haven’t even seen any of them. With over 150 images and the high standard of entries
everyone is certainly going to be spoilt for choice. We’re also really glad we expanded our
competition to accept artwork this year as there are obviously some very talented people
out there. But before we tell you how to vote, we’d like to say a very big thank you to everyone
who has entered and to all those taking part. We couldn’t do it without you!

To vote, simply go to our Voting Gallery and click ‘Vote’ on your favourite image(s). You can
vote for as many images as you like but you can only vote once per image per IP address.
Facebook users can vote on our Competition App Page and those not on Facebook can vote
via our Competition webpage. Since there are so many entries make sure you click on ‘View
More’ at the bottom of Gallery to see them all. Alternatively, you can click on the first
image and scroll between them using the arrows directly beneath the image. This option also allows
you to see the images in full as the Voting page only initially displays image thumbnails.
Remember the vote closes at midnight 7 September.

Invest in ME will then judge the final stage and choose the winners whose images will be
printed on this year’s Christmas cards. We aim to print ten cards and will announce the
winners on 19 September, both on our blog and Facebook Competition Event’s Page. We
hope to have the cards ready for sale by late September through Invest in ME’s website. All
the cards are sold in aid of Invest in ME’s Biomedical Research Fund so any purchases made
will not only help advance ME research but also raise much needed awareness of the
disease.

Have fun and good luck to all our entrants!

Let’s Get Snapping for M.E! 2014 Christmas Cards Photo Competition

It may be the height of summer, but we're already looking ahead to Christmas as we launch our very popular and successful 'Let's Get Snapping for M.E!' Competition. For those not familiar with the event, this is a fantastic opportunity to share your hidden talent and get your photo or artwork printed on this year's charity Christmas cards. In doing so, you'll also be helping a great cause since all cards are sold to raise money for Invest in ME's Biomedical Research Fund. But that's not all; winners will also receive a pack featuring their winning image, either as a mixed pack or one solely of their own. There's never been a better time to dust down those cameras, search out those paintbrushes and start getting creative for ME!

The competition has had something of a makeover for this year and undergone some improvements. Firstly, we’ve decided to accept artwork as well as photos. This means even more of you can take part. Hooray!! Secondly, to enter you now have to submit images by filling in an online Entry Form. Thirdly, we’ve dispensed with the ‘Let’s do it for ME’ Team vote. This means now all approved photos will go into the online vote so they’ll be lots more to choose from – exciting! And finally, there will now be a proper Voting Gallery. Not everything has changed though; Invest in ME will still judge the final stage, and we’ve still kept the image guidelines very open, in that you can send in images of anything you like but it just has to have a Christmassy feel. To give you some idea of what we mean, take a look at last year’s blog post featuring the shortlisted photos.

Now we’ve explained a little about the changes with our ‘new look’ competition, let’s get down to the important matter of how to enter. To enter, Facebook users should click here and non Facebook users can go to our Competition webpage. Just fill it in, upload your image and click Enter. Once you’ve clicked Enter you will then see a confirmation page with an entry ticket number, this can take a little while whilst the image uploads into our database.  We will also email you to confirm we've received your entry.  As in previous years, you can enter up to five images. Images need to be in a digital format and either a JPEG, PNG or GIF file. The maximum file size you can upload is 50MB. For artwork, simply scan the image and upload the file. The entry deadline is 31 August 2014. (Please note, the Entry Form only allows you to upload one image so you if you are entering more than one simply submit a form for each image.)

The online vote, where you get to vote for your favourites, runs from 1 – 7 September. The vote will
take place in our online Gallery and you’ll be able to access this through the same links as those for
entering. As in previous years, you can vote for as many images as you like but can only vote for an
image once. However, there are changes to the way in which you cast your votes. You will need to vote using the Vote button instead of Liking the image, and we will no longer be accepting email votes. Once the online vote is over, Invest in ME will judge the final stage with the winners being announced on 19 September. We aim to print ten images and have the cards available to purchase from late September onwards.

We have a Competition Webpage with a Help Section should you experience difficulties.  Although, the whole process is very simple so you’re unlikely to need it. You can also email us should you need further assistance.

With your help and our ‘new look’ competition, we aim to make this year even bigger and better.
Although last year’s will take some beating given our Christmas card, featuring winner Julie-Ann
Gylaitis’ photo, pipped No 1 slot in The Independent newspaper’s IndyBest 10 Best Charity Christmas Cards. You can read all about it in our special blog post. So let’s get snapping for ME, because who knows where this year will take us or you?

Good luck!

For competition rules click here. For tips on how to create your own home studio see last year’s Competition blog post and scroll down to the bottom of the article.

Show Us Your Best Side Competition - Winner Announced!

A few weeks ago we launched the Show Us Your Best Side photo competition to raise awareness of, and make the support there is for, Invest in ME's planned biomedical research centre as visible as possible. The competition has really helped to get the LDIFME photo album off to a flying start! Thank you to everyone who took part, and to everyone raising funds for Invest in ME.

Our album:




Please keep sending your photos to us at fundraising4me@gmail.com to add to our album.

We've been sent a good variety of photos and details, thank you to everyone who has taken part to raise awareness so far. When it came to judging the competition, we looked to Invest in ME to choose the winning photo. While it was agreed there were many good entries, and several were very strong contenders, it was unanimously decided by Invest in ME that.. the winner should be.. the Mawer family! 

Congratulations to Tanya, Tara, Dave, Keisha, Tasha!

Tanya (Mum), Tara (11), Dave (dad), Keisha (oldest sister aged 14) and Tasha (middle child aged 13).

Tanya Mawer sent the following response to us on hearing of the competition result:

"Hi my name's Tanya (42) mum to Tara (11) who was diagnosed with CFS in November 2010. Thank you all so much for voting for us and choosing our family group photo as the winner – we are all extremely thrilled and feel very honoured to win the photo competition, I would like you to all know the news has put a lovely big smile on Tara's face.

Prior to falling ill Tara was extremely active (almost to the point of hyperactive!) she did tap and modern dance and musical theatre and loved to sing. We used to tease her as she used to sing instead of talk and dance everywhere instead of walk. Sadly, she's now had to give up on all of those activities.

I feel we are very lucky, and think all in all we have a great team behind us at our local Children’s hospital: -

• Consultants Senior Registrar (we have never had an appointment with the actual consultant),

• Physio – who initially wanted us to do progressive exercise – which we tried and stopped after 4 days as it made Tara worse, so now we do a half hour hydrotherapy session per week instead,

• OT – who runs the weekly hour long “rehab group” with other CFS children,

• Hospital school teacher – who was Tara’s only teacher for the past year and works from a room on one of the Children’s wards

• Clinical Psychologist – who is trying to help Tara come to terms with her illness.

All of whom are brilliant, though not very forthcoming with information – we found out about virtual school via TYMES Trust* and feel that the medical profession only want to push Tara back into “normal” routines, environments and school without appreciating fully that if she were able to do that – she would! Tara has chronic back ache, that we treat with wheat bags, heat gel, calpol and nurofen (our one off prescription of codeine now has gone), we recently stumbled upon a “pain be gone” pen at our local chemists which we trialled overnight and then bought the next day – it works sort of like a tens machine and is helping Tara to become a little more comfortable with her back, although it doesn’t entirely remove the pain as it stubbornly refuses to go. She also suffers with nausea all the time too, we're onto our second anti-sickness drug which we give her three times a day with her meals, in an effort to find something to relieve the nausea for her – and hurrah! It’s working (but shhhhh don’t tempt fate). Other than that she also suffers from headaches, sore throats, joint and muscle pains, burning eyes, pins and needles, swollen lymph glands in her neck, stomach pains, noise sensitivity (she wears ear defenders when I hoover or use the hair dryer etc - only certain sounds seem to upset her, not all noises) and of course tiredness. She finds being in large noisy places such as shopping centres and schools too noisy and too exhausting, social interaction on a large scale is too much for her.

We're currently looking into different schooling options for Tara, as we tried unsuccessfully to get her back to school by sending her for the first two lessons every day. This gradually wore her out ending in a relapse which lasted a month. The Registrar at our recent meeting seems to think the Nisai Virtual academy route is a great idea, so we are pursuing that and trying to get the school to agree to fund it. At this moment in time the school are not agreeable to funding virtual school, although we’re still doggedly negotiating options with them. We have Tara back at her “mainstream” school for one Maths lesson on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday. She also attends OT Group for an hour on a Thursday and Hydrotherapy for half hour on a Friday. Unfortunately, for the time being, this is her limit and so anything extra (such as virtual school) would be too much right now. We are in the process of applying for a Blue Badge (fingers crossed we get it) and taking everything a day at a time.

As a family we are battling with the ups and downs this illness brings. During May this year, feeling frustrated and useless we decided to raise funds for the TYMES Trust* and as a family comprising of myself, Tara (who did it in the wheelchair), Dave (dad), Keisha (oldest sister aged 14) and Tasha (middle child aged 13), and Taras best friend Abby, we recently completed a 5 mile sponsored walk and successfully achieved a total of £607.06, which was fantastic.

I have attached a photo of myself and Tara (on a good day) and the family on the day of our sponsored walk.

If you wish to contact me my email address is: tanyamawer@hotmail.com  I am happy for my email address to be shown, if anyone else in the same boat wants to get in touch - it's good to support and help each other wherever possible.


Whatever else you do, keep smiling

Best regards

Tanya and the rest of the Mawer family" 


In a very generous twist, Tara has chosen to donate her prize to a raffle to raise funds for Invest in ME. Such a selfless and positive thing to do, Tara is clearly determined to make a difference to others, despite being very unwell herself. We wish Tara and her family all the very best and are touched to have helped brighten their day with this news. 


*TYMES Trust - The Young ME Sufferers Trust - is the longest-running UK charity for children and young people with myalgic encephalomyelitis and won the Queen's Award for its voluntary services in 2010. Executive Director Jane Colby, an ex-headteacher with personal experience of ME, kindly commented in our Guestbook when our campaign first launched in July:

"Quality biomedical research will ensure that people with ME are taken seriously. We want to see the work of Dr John Chia on enteroviruses replicated in the UK and further work on enteroviruses funded. Any centre that can do that gets our vote."


Thank you to everyone who sent in their photos and to all our supporters for raising awareness and funds for Invest in ME and the planned research centre. 

Please keep sending us your photos at fundraising4me@gmail.com. We wish to build on the success of this competition and will be selecting a further photo each month to be highlighted on the LDIFME blog. All photos sent to us by midnight November 30th will be eligible for the Photo of the Month for November.

Photo Competition Update

Thank you to all those who have sent us photos to be included in the LDIFME album, as part of our Show Us Your Best Side awareness event and photo competition, so far.

We now have signs available for use in groups and at fund-raising events, and which include the Invest in ME logo - highlighting that all funds raised go directly to the charity.

We have received some lovely photos, but need many more - so please don't be shy!

Send your photos in to us at fundraising4me@gmail.com, along with your name, age (if under 16) and any other details you are happy for us to share publicly.

If you are under 16 please seek permission from a parent or guardian before you send in your photo(s) and provide us with their contact details (Name, Address, Telephone No. and Email Address) as we cannot use your photo(s) without this permission.

And don't forget there's a prize in it for the most inspired photo! For the full details of our competition, see our previous post here.

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Show Us Your Best Side - Photo Competition!

*See our later post for a competition update and the new improved Let's do it for ME! signs - Photo Competition Update.

The level of support and enthusiasm for Invest in ME's proposal for a UK centre for biomedical research and treatment for myalgic encephalomyelitis, since Let's do it for ME! launched a few weeks ago, has been truly inspiring, and has given hope to many of the ME sufferers, their families and friends who have heard about it so far. This can be seen by the amazing comments left in our Guestbook, the donations made so far, and the many on-going fund-raising events set up to benefit it.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank everyone supporting this campaign, which aims to raise the £100,000 necessary to open the centre.

Our other aim is to generate publicity that will raise awareness of ME, the need for biomedical research, and the proposed UK centre - so we'd like to make sure that this support is as visible as possible. We feel the best way to do this is to enlist your help by asking as many supporters as are able to send us your photos.

There are no specific requirements - you do not need to suffer from ME yourself or have a loved one that suffers - the only requirement is that you support our campaign and Invest in ME's proposal for a UK centre for biomedical ME research and treatment.

Your help in making an invisible illness more visible will be greatly appreciated.

So, are you ready for your close up? Then send us a photo showing that you support our campaign!

To make it easy to show your support, we have made the following signs for you to print-out.

But we encourage those who wish to be creative to make your own signs or find other ways to show you support the campaign - it might be a photo of you at your fund-raising event for example.

There is no deadline for photos to be sent to us, as we'd like supporters to keep sending them in as the campaign progresses, but to help get our album off to a flying start the most inspired photo sent in by midnight 31st October will also receive a special prize. The winner will be announced early in November and will have a choice of Let's do it for ME! products, including a teddy bear, t-shirt or mug!

Send your photos in to us at fundraising4me@gmail.com, along with your name, age (if under 16) and any other details you are happy for us to share publicly.

We feel it is important to allow young people to show they are behind this campaign but if you are under 16 please seek permission from a parent or guardian before you send in your photo(s) and provide us with their contact details (Name, Address, Telephone No. and Email Address) as we cannot use your photo(s) without this permission.

Your photos will be added to the Let's do it for ME! web-album and displayed on our website. By sending us your photos you will be helping to raise awareness of a debilitating neurological disease that afflicts 250,000 people in the UK, 25,000 of which are children, and to give hope to sufferers, their families and friends.

So are you feeling inspired and ready to Show Us Your Best Side? Let's do it for ME!


Thank you so much for your support, we look forward to receiving your photos!
Team LDIFME

*For more details on the proposal for the centre see A UK Centre or download The Invest in ME Steering Group Proposal for a ME Research Facility. We will also have more details on the proposal and its progress soon. The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME and towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.